diff --git a/libraries/render-utils/src/MaterialTextures.slh b/libraries/render-utils/src/MaterialTextures.slh
index a530f4faf2..e694935361 100644
--- a/libraries/render-utils/src/MaterialTextures.slh
+++ b/libraries/render-utils/src/MaterialTextures.slh
@@ -66,7 +66,7 @@ vec3 fetchNormalMap(vec2 uv) {
     // unpack normal, swizzle to get into hifi tangent space with Y axis pointing out
     vec2 t = 2.0 * (texture(normalMap, uv).rg - vec2(0.5, 0.5));
     vec2 t2 = t*t;
-    return normalize(vec3(t.x, sqrt(1 - t2.x - t2.y), t.y));
+    return vec3(t.x, sqrt(1 - t2.x - t2.y), t.y);
 }
 <@endif@>